New Life
by RisingWinter
Summary: Nate meets up with his next client in the library once kept by the Watchers. Oneshot.


**I do not own Buffy: the Vampire Slayer or Leverage**

**Author's Note:** I was watching Leverage and finished Buffy around the same time and I wanted to write about both. This is the result. (Was going to be a full-blown story with arcs and everything when I realized I would never finish that).

* * *

Nate may not have seen a _lot_ of libraries in his time, yet he guessed that the one he stood in now surpassed most any in existence.

Dust and neglect permeated the air of the Watcher Library, specks and particles floating visible on the golden rays of the sun peeking out from between blinder panels and illuminating foreign words on brown and wrinkled paper that sat out on desks and tables, some scattered on the floor. Shelves spanned every wall, stretching up to at least, ten, twenty feet in the air, all filled to the brim with books.

Halls and extensions stretched out in every direction, some more intact than others, all with the exact same walls and shelves and _more books_ than Nate had ever imagined in his life. Surely even Washington couldn't compare to the sheer immensity of the texts available. If Nate were to guess, he suspected this was about as close to Alexandria as the world would get in a long time.

How the organization managed to keep it hidden was beyond him.

The only other soul in the building, a child standing at only three or feet, broke the silence. "I spent so much time here." He didn't look up when he spoke, instead keeping his bespectacled look fixed on the view before them. "I can't believe it's still standing after that explosion."

"Looks like quite a school."

"That's not what I thought at first." Nate waited for him to elaborate. The child cast a look between Nate and the shelves, sighing. "Growing up as a Watcher, a mystic, all I could see was restrictions and rules and books that only I would read."

"And yet?"

"Anything you could ever want to know about the supernatural is in here. Any questions you ever had, all you need is an appendix. In so many ways, nothing has changed. But it's a two-edged blade, having all this knowledge, all this power readily available to any aspiring young man... If I may ask, how did you know I would be here?"

"Your team. They're worried about you."

"I suppose that's fair. But there's no need, I'm perfectly fine. Just… suffering a bit of an existential crisis. Ever been killed and resurrected as a child, while keeping the mind and experience of over fifty years?"

"Can't say I have."

"I apologize, this must be strange. You shouldn't have had to come here."

"Didn't have to."

"Then why come?"

"Your friends are worried."

"To be honest, I didn't think that was your business. But I suspect that's irrelevant."

"Pretty much."

The child finally broke his gaze from the array of titles spanning through the great hall and turned to look at Nate. "Very well. Couldn't exactly save any worlds hiding in here, could I?" He straightened, making a show of dusting nothing from his small, tweed jacket.

"So, what am I going to call you?"

"I – I'm used to Giles. But, uh, whatever makes you least uncomfortable. I assume Faith has her own way back?"

"She told me she has it covered."

"Do you know what you're going to do about my schooling, or my legal guardians? And then there's my car and house and-"

"Already done. Official classes would be wasted on you, so we're officially putting you in home-based schooling. And we've already fixed the system so that the skip in your generation has been dealt with."

"How?"

"We inserted a couple of figures in your line. Officially, you're Rupert Giles III and none of your parents or grandparents are currently living. You – or your grandfather Rupert Giles I – was killed in an accident just recently and, being friends of your father, we've taken you in as our adoptive child."

"And what do Buffy and her friends know? Are they terribly upset?"

"No. We gave them some of the truth and that was enough. Anything you want to change about your history, or do you want to talk to your friends?"

"No, no, that's fine. Is it nice, in Portland?"

"It's not California, so it depends on how attached you became."

"I didn't, not to California. Only Sunnydale, only to my students. But I've done what I can, and even if there was a loose end, I doubt I could tie it like this."

"Good. Shall we?"

"Let's." The child stepped out with Nate, into the bright morning sun and what was once the Watcher's court.


End file.
